Dietary Sodium Intake and Serum Uric Acid: A Mini-Review

The aim of the present review is to summarize recent studies on the relationship between dietary sodium intake and serum uric acid concentration. In short-term dietary sodium intervention studies, including a recent further analysis of a previously published trial, high dietary sodium intake (200 mmol/day), compared with a low sodium diet (20-60 mmol/day), resulted in a significant reduction in serum uric acid, being approximately 20-60 μmol/L. This finding, though consistent across short-term studies, is in contradiction to the long-term observational evidence on the relationship between dietary sodium intake and serum uric acid. Indeed, in a population-based prospective study, high dietary sodium intake was associated with a higher serum uric acid concentration. If serum uric acid would be followed up, several currently ongoing long-term randomized dietary sodium intervention studies may shed some light on how dietary sodium intake interacts with serum uric acid in the development of hypertension.